Health, education and lifestyle sectors follow-on investment fund HEAL Partners has led a $23.8 million Series C investment round in Auckland-based ed-tech company Crimson Education.

Other investors in the round include New Zealand funds Icehouse Ventures’ expansion capital fund IXV Fund and K1W1.

Along with the new investment, which values the business at more than $500 million, former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has joined Crimson Education’s advisory board.  Former New Zealand prime minister Sir John Key is also an investor and advisory board member.

Crimson Education was founded in 2013 by chief executive Jamie Beaton and co-founders Fangzhou Jiang and Sharndre Kushor with the objective of supercharging students’ ability to gain admission to the world’s most competitive universities based on their own experiences. The company claims success in helping students gain admission to leading universities in the US and the UK. 

Partner at HEAL Partners Martin Dalgleish said the impact of COVID-19 had provided a tailwind for providers of digital education platforms. He said he expected the future of education would be a hybrid model of in person and digital delivery.